YEAR IN REVIEW: June 2017

Sunday

Dec 31, 2017 at 3:08 AM

June 1

In a unanimous decision that caused a public uproar, the DeFuniak Springs City Council approved switching the office spaces used by the mayor and city manager. The office of Mayor Bob Campbell and his assistant was moved to the back of City Hall in the space formerly used by the city manager. Interim City Manager Craig Drake now works out of Campbell’s old spot at the front of the building.

June 3

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrested 25 people in a multi-agency drug sting. Operation Shady Lane led to at least 36 arrest warrants and the seizure of almost $120,000 worth of heroin along with cocaine, 500 tablets of prescription pills and more than $25,000 in cash. The undercover investigation began in February 2016 and focused on a suspected heroin drug trafficking organization operating in Okaloosa County.

June 6

Former Okaloosa County Water and Sewer Department manager Kathy Nelson was identified as the primary suspect in a law enforcement investigation into billing discrepancies that included failing to collect money owed by certain developers. She was eventually charged with stealing $223,000 from the county.

June 9

Heavy rains caused an erosion event at the Coronal Development Sources Group solar array on Eglin Air Force Base that muddied the water of Tom’s Bayou near Niceville. It was the first of three such events at the site in a two-month period.

June 9

An Okaloosa County jury found Fort Walton Beach resident William Thomason guilty of first-degree murder in the 2013 death of his 8-week-old daughter Braelyn. The child had been found unresponsive and lethargic after being left alone in Thomason’s care. Two days later, Thomason was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.

June 10

Skanska USA announced it had completed construction of a second bridge spanning Choctawhatchee Bay in South Walton County. The new U.S. Highway 331 bridge, built at a cost of $118.5 million, allowed the state to provide four traffic lanes across the bay and it served to widen an important north-south tropical storm evacuation route.

June 17

City Attorney Clayton Adkinson filed a report notifying the DeFuniak Springs governing board that the city had lost nearly $221,000 in the last two years by failing to file audits and annual financial reports with the state in a timely fashion.

June 18

Springhill Suites Marriott officially opened on Navarre Beach. The 161-room hotel at 8375 Gulf Blvd. replaces the old Holiday Inn, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

June 21

A labor arbitrator ordered the DeFuniak Springs Police Department to reinstate two officers who had been fired based on charges of racial discrimination brought by a third officer. The arbitrator said termination was too harsh a punishment for what misdeeds were committed by officers Anthony Kaiser and Rick Bobblitt, and found their accuser to be “not very credible.”

June 22

Tropical Storm Cindy brought high winds and heavy rains to Northwest Florida, and spawned a tornado that touched down within the city limits of Fort Walton Beach. The twister damaged 14 homes and a school just north of Hollywood Boulevard and ravaged Ferry Park, a popular recreation center.

June 23

Navarre Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Judy Morehead unexpectedly announced her resignation. The move came two days before it was reported locally that she had been indicted by a grand jury in May in Henry County, Alabama, on fraud and theft charges stemming from her work as a securities broker.

June 24

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice announced its decision to close the Okaloosa Youth Development Center, a youth detention facility located just south of Crestview. DJJ officials said staff had failed to correct “serious deficiencies” and the state no longer had confidence it could safely house young offenders there.

June 30

Sarah Flanagan, a 19-year-old visiting the Emerald Coast from Texas, died when the personal watercraft she was operating collided with a 30-foot boat on Choctawhatchee Bay.

June 30

Larry Michael Thorne, a former pastor of Abundant Life Church in Fort Walton Beach, was convicted of sexually battering a 14-year-old girl. Thorne was arrested Nov. 14, 2014, after the victim reported he had sexual contact with her on numerous occasions between January 2014 and shortly before the time he was taken into custody.

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